A day out

 So Miguel didn't finish up Friday; a storm came in and he had to quit around 3 pm. He's back today putting the last bits of siding on the back of the house. Also some of the painter guys are here - not Martin, who seems to be the head guy, but a couple of worker guys; they are powerwashing and scraping today and it's a giant relief to see all the "waterbug"* egg cases that got deposited under the old crummy vinyl siding gone. I presume later today or tomorrow Martin will want to consult on paint colors - I want white (though there are a lot of shades of white: "Don't tell a handyman you want WHITE" says Teddy from Bob's Burgers) with a sage/olive green trim that will match, as best as possible, the metal trim up near the roof. 

(*This is a polite term for the big "American" cockroach, which are fairly endemic here)

Saturday, though - I stuck around here until about 9:30 just to be SURE (I doubted the guys would work on weekends, but you never know). And then I decided: I needed to be OUT. It was too late to head to Chickasaw (and anyway, on Saturdays in the summer, they can be horrifically crowded) so I decided to go to the yarn shop.

Driving there was not fun; it's high construction season and also one of the stoplights to get into Whitesboro had something wrong with it (it would only stay green for about 15 seconds on the side I needed) so I wound up pulling in through a gas station parking lot and taking a roundabout route to get into town.

But I finally got there

This is Quixotic Fibers. They have a larger awning sign but this is what you see from the sidewalk.

And their mascot, who I think is wearing a Quixote-style hat:

MAN I love this place. The owners are the exact opposite of the snooty yarn shop owners I encountered in Hudson (and to a lesser extent, in Ann Arbor) when I was younger. I think maybe people realize now if you're offputting to newer or younger knitters (though I am no longer one), your hobby winds up dying? 

The shop's main focus is sockweight yarn, which makes sense in our hot climate, where accessories and lightweight sweaters make more sense than heavy sweaters. (They do carry some dk and worsted weight, and I"m pretty sure they will order for you if you ask). 

I had a $20 loyalty card, which did get me a free skein of yarn (the red yarn in the picture below), but I also bought a couple other skeins while I was there. If I weren't thinking of the cost of my house repairs I might have bought more, or one of the books I looked at. 

The red yarn - it's Malabrigo's "new" sockyarn; they added nylon to it now for sturdiness is going to become fingerless mitts. The yarn in the middle is a self striper (it's String Theory dyeworks, who I have mail ordered from, when I saw they had a bin of the yarn I exclaimed "Oh, I LOVE String Theory" and one of the owners laughed and said she did, too). The bottom one is just one of those super colorful yarns some people deride as "clown barf" but which I love; I have a lace sock pattern I think I want to use it for. 

I cleared space in my bedroom so I could attach my swift to a low bookcase, and I have a tall barstool that serves many purposes (a table to eat on while I'm working in the living room, a place to write checks) but that I can also attach my ball winder to, so I'm going to wind these off maybe later today, and also the two skeins of bronze colored yarn I bought for a shawl back on my birthday trip there. 

They also gave me a free advertising button, which I put on my little backpack-style purse

It says "Quixotic Fibers." I highly recommend them if you're ever in the North Texas area. Actually, Whitesboro is just a nice place to go anyway - not a huge downtown, but it has several stores I like. 

I also went to Kaleidoscope quilts but only bought a package of good sewing needles, hoping to motivate myself to sew down bindings at some point. And, yes, well, a couple charm packs of a "cute" fabric with woodland animals on it. Someday I will be able to use my sewing room again; the construction will be done and I'll be able to move the stuff I have stored in it back out. 

I also ate INSIDE a restaurant, a rare rare occurrence for me any more. I went to Lovejoy's, which is a very pleasant place to eat (and it was not crowded, I was at least 10' from any other diners)

I got quiche, because they make good quiche

Another thing they do that I really like: they make fantastically good desserts, AND you can order a "small slice" for about half the price of a full sized slice, so if you're full from your meal but still want dessert, you can do it. Their cakes are definitely house made - I can detect a "mix" cake and these are not "mix" cakes, nor are they the over-leavened, over-sweetened cakes that some restaurants seem to serve.

I got lemon cream cake, which was very good. After chocolate, lemon is my second favorite dessert flavor.

I find a need a day like this at least once a quarter in order to stay sane. Ideally I'd get one once a month but I'm busy and also right now I have to be pretty frugal in order to be able to pay off the rest of the cost of the renovation.